This is a cake walk compared to how it was done pre 1960's.
1st off an eye splice was made by tucking each individual strand of wire through the running end of the rope several times so the splice ran past the thimble by 2 or 3 feet.
Today you do a simple (excuse my language) "**** splice" which is what they do here. Split the strands equally on opposite sides of the thimble, wrap them together oppositely, cut the extra off and hammer on a ferrule (preformed inside the shape of the cable) so it twists on easily. **** splices are super weak and were never used in this application when this was done by hand. All the strength here comes from the massive hydraulic press that crimps that ferrule over the ends of the **** splice squishing the ferrule into every available airspace amoungst the wires with tremendous pressure. I first saw one of those hydraulic crimpers in the 70's. Before then cable spices were made in the field by securing the cable on top of a large stump with railroad spikes (the heads placed on opposite sides held the cable down). 3' marlin spikes were needed to separate the tight running end of the cable so the unwound single strands could be tucked between the tight strands of the running end. You didn't have a 3 jaw vise or even any vise or flat ground to work on. It's not the weight of the cable it's the form of it you are constantly fighting.
Next is the socket they install on the other end. What they don't tell you is they f'd up and forgot to put the socket on the cable before they splayed all the strands and individual wires. There is no way they got that on after. They would have had to cut off the splayed end, put the socket on the cable and slid it down out of the way and then re-splay all the wires. Up to here thats how it was done too but next you took pliers and bent back the last 1/2" of each wire so it was bent backward 170 degrees. Then you slid up the socket and bashed it up over all the splayed wires (after cleaning in muriatic acid) and you poured molten zinc into the socket much like the do with epoxy. Bending the ends of the wires results in a thicker end that when filled with molten and hardened zinc can not pass through the socket ever.
You have to think of wire rope like a machine. Each wire is preformed to a distinct shape with many flat surfaces so it fits into the cable like pieces of a puzzle ring. It is heavily lubricated so it can move well but cable in these sizes (1 1/4" and up) are very hard to work.
The other common splice is a long splice where you join 2 cables together. On cable this size a long splice would be about 40 ft long. You would join a 1" haulback cable to a 1 1/4" mainline cable and the splice could still pass though ****** blocks.
This is still tough work but nothing like it used to be.
